Month: November 2016

Today was my first attempt at making homemade jam. Prior to this experience I had only ever bought pre-made jam from from the grocery store, my personal favourite is strawberry. However, when I went to Loblaws today their selection of strawberries were
not up to par, so I went with raspberries.

Before starting my preserving journey I researched a recipe for raspberry jam. I found one that appealed to me from the site food.com, you can find the recipe here. The recipe was extremely simple — which is one of the reasons why I chose it. Just a regular person with no culinary experience could easily make their own jam at the comfort of their own home.

The raspberry jam recipe only requires 2 cups of raspberries and 4 cups of sugar. I also

Raspberries!

added a bit of lemon juice to give it a bit of tartness so that the jam would not be quite so sweet. The first step to the recipe is to wash and then mash the raspberries. Put that on top of the stove and let it come to a full boil and simmer for two minutes.

Pouring the sugar into the raspberries

Once it has cooked for a full two minutes then you can start adding the 4 cups of sugar whilst stirring the raspberries. When the sugar is completely mixed in you must add a squeeze of lemon and let the raspberries come to a full boil again. I ended up cooking it for probably about 10 minutes although the recipe only advises two. Once cooked pour it into a sterilized jar.

At first when I finished the recipe I was incredibly

The finished product!

disappointed with my product; The consistency was like that of a syrup instead of a jam. However, the colour and taste were almost identical to the raspberry jam that I have purchased in the past. Incredibly disheartened after seeing the consistency of my jam I left it for the night. Luckily, when I awoke the next day I checked my jam and it had firmed up to the perfect consistency! Still a little bit watery compared to store bought variety but it was much better than the completely liquid form it was a day prior.

Before creating my jam I did lots of research on the subject of preserving and I found that often recipes for jam call for pectin or gelatin. These are both firming agents that would help the consistency to be less watery and more like a jelly. I however chose the more simple route that more people at home would find easy to do. I think the recipe overall was quite successful especially once I allowed it to sit overnight. I definitely recommend trying out this recipe if you’re interested in preserving! It’s quick, easy, and tastes great!